Winter (Mist Riders Book 2) Read online

  I had nothing to say. I mostly wanted to punch him or at least smash him against a wall, but I also felt a little numb. “Whatever. Just do your computer thing. I’d rather not be psychoanalyzed.”

  “Do me next,” Faion said to chill the mood. “I’m all kinds of bent.”

  Winter looked away for a moment, veins throbbing in his neck. “There could be a bounty on Luna’s head. They eliminate those deemed liabilities.”

  “Well, they must have deemed my mattress a liability. They completely gutted it. And, trust me, my mattress was completely innocent.”

  “She right,” Faion said. “They’d have been after her guts if they wanted our girl eliminated. Not a mattress that hasn’t seen a single rodeo.”

  Winter had learned to tune us out, which was a good thing.

  His eyes darted everywhere at once as data and images flashed by on the screen with increasing speed. When recognition hit, Winter stopped his hand to freeze frame the screen. A guttural sigh escaped his lips.

  “Find something?” I said.

  “Not really. The grid is clean. You are not mentioned in any currently active operation.”

  “That’s a good thing, right?” Faion said.

  “Good is an imprecise word. It does not contain the clarity that you seem to think it does. ”

  “But as far as the official Immortal network?” I asked.

  “You are not a liability,” Winter consented. “Everything looks like business as usual except…”

  “Except what?”

  “The portal to the exile vortex has been opened.”

  A chill cut through my chest. “The vortex is open?”

  “Not the vortex, the portal. It was briefly opened then closed again.”

  “Briefly?” Faion said. “How briefly? Did anything get out or… in?”

  “That’s it, Faion, a question of substance,” Winter said.

  “Can someone elaborate?” I said. “I honestly never knew if that was even a thing, a real thing, outside of supernatural studies.”

  Winter sat on the edge of the desk. The monitor went black. “In the time before human cities, a few Divine Ones accumulated an abundance of raw power. The First Council of Eternal Beings beseeched them to surrender a portion of that power. Most of the Divines complied, but for the few who resisted, a trap was set. They were captured inside enormous magnetic fields that neutralized their powers. A trial found them guilty of sedition. A parallel vortex was created and within the vortex Eternal halls were erected to house the banished Divines. Only the Great Eternal Magistrate and the Vortex Watch know the location of the vortex. The portal would never open unless it be to banish another Divine One, someone grown hostile to the hierarchy, whose power had burgeoned, but that is the rarest of occasions and all Immortal and Divine Councils would have been notified.”

  “What do you think it means?” I said. “And how did the Seventh Council even know about it?”

  “My guess is they stumbled upon it,” Winter surmised. “Possibly a chain reaction causing ripples in etheric fields.”

  Faion crossed his arms. “Or maybe there was a whistle blower.”

  None of us wanted to speak of the possible ramifications. If this was a premeditated breach opened from the inside, then for what dark purpose?

  The real question was why would the Eternals sit on their hands and do nothing if this really happened? Were they so far removed from the temporal world that nothing mattered anymore? Eternals were the highest beings, above the Divine Ones, they were the keepers of all things Immortal. All councils were bound to them. They themselves had advanced up through all the stages of immortality, they were old, powerful and wise. The Great Eternal Magistrate a.k.a “Preceptor of Gods” was said to be over ten thousand years old. To them, a year must feel like seconds.

  “Would you put it past Chaos to be involved?” I said. “Seems like he might get a kick out of releasing deranged Divines lusting to unleash their stifled powers upon the world. Winter, please, he’s a likely suspect.”

  A simmering unrest stirred in his eyes. “No amount of searching will lead us to a shadow who doesn’t want to be found.”

  “That’s true,” Faion said, “but we diviners connect telepathically even at great distances. Shadows are hyper sentient. Do you think you could connect with Chaos by means of telepathy?”

  Winter considered the idea. “Whatever a diviner can do is surely possible for us, with proper training. Chaos would need to let his guard down, which is not likely. Even if the connection were established, we would have created a two-way street. The dark Shadow would feel me, see me, know my mind, he’d even know what I had for breakfast. He’d see you, both of you, and he’d know our mission and our plans.”

  Yeah, let’s not do that. Hard pass.

  “What about Lucia?” Faion said. “Maybe she could…”

  Oh no.

  Winter’s deep-ocean eyes landed on mine. “Why would Faion think I know this person, Luna?”

  I shrugged. “He’s obviously just babbling.”

  “No, that was no random babble. He mentioned a name. Lucia. She clearly possesses abilities. I want to hear of this woman.”

  No way out. Faion looked sheepish, like he’d swallowed a bug.

  “Lucia is Lily’s mother. She is a human and an unwittingly player in all these sordid affairs. Chaos created an open channel through her where he could create energy. Under his control, she was the one who attacked me in the parking garage. When Chaos came looking for me, I insisted he release her, which he did. She doesn’t remember a thing.”

  Winter went stone cold, obviously pissed at not being told sooner. Screw him, he was hardly the poster boy for vital information sharing.

  He scowled and clenched his fists. “What else have you kept from me?”

  “Nothing. I needed to keep Lucia away from all this. She deserved that much. It was my business. Not yours, not the Council’s.”

  “And you’ve played into Chaos’ hands no doubt,” he said with a huff.

  “Ah, so we have that in common now,” I quickly said.

  He shook his head. “What a daft little witch you can be… did you really think he no longer has full access to her?”

  Not specifically, but any basic could be accessed by Chaos. Duh.

  Winter rose to his feet. “I lose patience with neophyte beings. It is to be expected.” He sighed. “I’ll let the program comb through all databases on the Immortal network,” he said. “Maybe there will be an irregularity. In the meantime, notify your friend. We’ll be paying her mom a visit.”

  I counted on my fingers. “One, I don’t have a phone. Two, Lucia is out of town today. Three, if this really needs to happen, there’s a New Year’s Eve party at her house tomorrow. We plan to attend.”

  “I’m her date,” Faion interjected. “I got this wine-colored velvet blazer. We going to make an entrance, you feel me?”

  “You’re going with her out of sympathy, I suspect,” Winter said. “We all know you would have more fun at a livelier gala, Mr. Trice.”

  “That’s kind of true,” Faion said out of the side of his mouth.

  “Oh my God, dude,” I said. “I’m right here.”

  “Sorry, Sophie,” my so-called-friend said. “I can’t lie. I am a man with options. And there’s a literal gala. Scary dude on point with that.”

  “I am to be your plus one,” Winter stated. He opened a drawer and handed me an old flip cell phone with an antenna.

  “Did you rob a museum?” I said, flipping open the phone.

  “It’s a burner phone,” Winter said. “It can’t be traced or compromised. You and Faion can stay at my place tonight. I’ve a previous engagement.”

  “Booty call,” Faion said, coughing the words into his shoulder.

  “It’s a private matter,” Winter said.

  A private matter? Apparently, those were for everyone but me.

  CHAPTER 10

  ____________________________________


  Winter handed Lucia a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne with a dry smile and marched straight into the living room in his navy-blue cashmere turtleneck and gray slacks. There were seemingly no clothes that could diminish his fierce masculinity.

  I didn’t expect my date on New Year’s Eve to be so old. Ancient, even. My Immortal companion had agreed he would only observe and not use any interrogation methods, but his promises were interpretive at best.

  Lily, Lucia and I stood in the hallway, staring at him walk away.

  “Another one, Sophie? You’ve certainly been busy,” Lucia said. She looked at the Dom Perignon bottle. “Expensive taste too.”

  “Mamá, that’s not her boyfriend, it’s her uncle.” Lily was enjoying this.

  Lucia raised her eyebrows. “Uncle? Isn’t he a bit young?”

  Young? It was hard not to laugh. “He’s not my uncle.”

  “That’s right,” Lil said. “He’s her uncle’s friend. Señor Sugar Daddy.”

  Cute, Lily. Any cuter and I’ll dump the fish tank on your head.

  Lucia tilted her head. “Well, he seems like a nice man and a very curious choice for a date on New Year’s Eve, Sophie.”

  “What’s curious?” Lily said. “Little Miss Perfect wants to jump his bones.”

  Winter lingered near the living room’s entrance and leaned back to glance at me. Had he heard us? Probably, his senses were animal like.

  “Lily, your manners,” Lucia instructed her daughter, then grabbed me gently by the shoulders. “I hope you understand the value of safe sex, Sophie. With multiple sexual partners, condoms are a must.”

  Oh-my-gawd. When I kill Lily, it will be slow and painful.

  “You girls have fun,” Lucia said. “Everyone’s here. I better go be a good little hostess.”

  I took Lily’s hand as Lucia sauntered off. “Who’s everyone?”

  “Two of Lucia’s colleagues from college with their spouses, a couple neighborhood families and an eccentric lady from Costa Rica. I’m not sure how they met, but Lucia has taken her under her wing, so to speak.”

  “When you say eccentric?”

  “Whisper into her ear and you’ll hear echo. Spews utter nonsense.”

  Okay then.

  Lily pouted. “Did you really have to bring the turtleneck Viking along? I thought the idea was to go out after midnight.”

  “We are,” I assured her.

  “I mean, I might want to hook up. No guy in their right mind will approach us with Uncle Beefcake at our table. He looks like a preppy pimp.”

  Okay, that was funny. “He’s obviously not invited, Lil. You spaz.”

  “Maybe he’ll make a pass at Lucia. He could be my new stepdad.”

  It wouldn’t be her first Shadow Warrior.

  “Gross,” I said. “I don’t want to think of that.”

  “I know,” she said, “because you want him.”

  I punched her shoulder. “Are you done?”

  “Hey,” she said, a little shocked.

  “Can we please mingle?” I said.

  “Yeah, fine,” she said. “You don’t need to get violent.”

  “It was a love tap.”

  Lily shook her head. “You’re a total freak, Collinsworth. So, why did you bring him?”

  “Jonas asked me out.”

  This stunned her. “He did not.”

  “He totally did, but in a respectful manner,” I said, enjoying the various shades of bewilderment on Lily’s face.

  “He’s all kinds of hot, but Sophie,” Lily said, then dragged me to the living room doorway, “that posture is too much, like a PE teacher, an elementary-school PE teacher. Uptight and a little predatorial.”

  Winter wasn’t there, but I could not deny her take. Instead, my eyes fell on the person that had to be the eccentric lady. She wore a worn-out tuxedo, galoshes, 3D glasses and held a pink umbrella.

  I mean… I’m not even mad. Wow.

  Lucia walked to the kitchen with an empty tray. I could hear her talking to someone and my gut told me the rest. Entering the bright kitchen, I saw Lucia handing Winter a tray full of mouth-drooling, savory canapés.

  “Jonas offered to help,” Lucia said joyfully.

  I forced a smile. “He does like to get involved.”

  “Lucia has been regaling me with stories of Latin American legends,” Winter said. “Grand stories of beautiful wild women with magical powers who roam the forest, sucking the life out of men foolish enough to follow them.”

  An obvious false equivalency that he thinks is clever.

  “Las Ciguapas,” I said. “I’ve read about them.”

  He narrowed his eyes to show disbelief. “You have?”

  “Yeah, Caribbean folklore was a pod within the Latin American folklore course at school. Wasn’t that a Dominican myth?”

  “It was,” Lucia said, “but it is not a myth. There are still sightings.”

  This amused us all for different reasons.

  “I want all myths to be true,” I said. “I loved how those women had backward feet so if men tried to follow, they would never know which way the Ciguapas were going. The men were clueless even then.”

  “The world of the past,” Winter went on, licking his lips. “These stories fascinate me, telling us details about people living a thousand years ago. Each of us can taste just a little bit of history almost as if we were there.”

  Intolerable. His self-love was nauseating. The fact that Lucia was charmed almost made me sick.

  “Folktales do not report history, rather the creative subconscious,” I said, trying to kick him off his double meaning express train.

  He grinned in agreement. “So true, Sophie, themes and details recur all over the world through all times. If we didn’t know better, it would seem there was someone there all along connecting the stories.”

  “God,” Lucia said.

  Oh, brother. This man.

  “Exactly,” Winter said. “Some kind of god, a charming one no doubt.”

  God, if you’re out there, please strike me down.

  I turned to Lucia. “Let me help, too. Which tray should I grab?”

  “We have it under control,” she said, then turned to Winter. “Jonas, could you be a dear and take those canapés out for the guests?”

  Winter bowed with old world gallantry, then left with the tray.

  “All your boyfriends are polite and intelligent,” Lucia said, “but I think Jonas might not be a good fit for you.”

  Please, no. Don’t tell me she thought he was a good fit for her. What was it with Lucia and deranged Immortals?

  “Not a boyfriend,” I assured her. “Lily likes to push my buttons.”

  “She does that to both of us,” Lucia said with a wink, “but I see things that you girls cannot. It comes with experience, with years. That man looks at you in a certain kind of way. I’ve seen it before. It’s possessive, territorial.”

  “He’s harmless,” I said even though he was anything but.

  “Okay, if you say so, but please, my dove, be careful.”

  I needed a warning about Winter’s possessiveness about as much as I needed e-coli in my lettuce. “And what about you, Lucia?” I said. “When was the last time you dated anyone?”

  She smiled. “Touché. I guess I earned that. There is such a thing as being too careful. The truth is, since my divorce, I have devoted myself to Lily and my work. Don’t get me wrong, there were a few forgettable guys, but no one who grabbed my imagination.” She stopped to ponder.

  Are you sure about that?

  She handed me a jug of lemonade. “Here you are, now you can help.”

  The partygoers had all settled into engaged conversations. As soon as I set the jug of lemonade down on the serving table, Winter placed his hand on the small of my back and led me down the hallway to the sunroom.

  Moonlight poured through the all-glass walls. Counters everywhere were overfull with empty pots, jars, glass tubes, and gardening tools. A sofa bed with
amethyst purple cushions, a stack of unused flowerpots and green metal shelves packed with gardening books sat against the one brick wall.

  “There’s a definite hold on Lucia’s aura,” Winter said, pacing the room, “but it seems dormant.”

  My head spun at his assertion. “Chaos still has access to Lucia?”

  “He’s not accessing her. Not now, but he made it so he could reopen that pathway with a snap of his fingers.”

  Immortals are total shit. He left it there for insurance.

  “Of course, he did,” I said, defeated.

  I stepped over a trowel and padded to the glass door. Lucia’s garden breathed heavily under the moonlight. Fruit trees surrounded the manicured lawn. Clumps of carnations, dahlias and begonias bloomed in flower beds. Rose bushes budded in the back. Green vines climbed up pickets.

  The moonshine entered my pores through the glass. I breathed in the green elemental energy. My powers ebbed and flowed in my every cell, invigorating me.

  “Can you open Lucia’s connective path?” I asked him.

  “If I wanted,” he confirmed. “That channel would lead me to Chaos. He would not know it was me, but it would come at a cost to the woman.”

  I figured as much. “Be more specific and her name is Lucia.”

  He picked up a poorly made ceramic pot. Cartoonish flowers and Lily’s name were painted on the pot. She must have made it for her mother as a child.

  “Using Lucia’s connective channel to connect with Chaos could be devastating. She will remember everything, all at once. It could rupture her conscience. She could be left schizophrenic or worse.”

  “Oh,” I said, “then we’re not doing that.

  In his eyes, I saw spreading darkness. “Even if that was avoided, the telepathic command Chaos had over Lucia would be renewed and it could never be reversed. Only the master of the spell could shut it down.”

  “Lucia would become a pawn in his sadistic games again.”

  Winter nodded. “That’s the best-case scenario.”

  I shivered. “And the worst?”

  “Her mind becomes non-responsive, completely.”

  “Like my mother, locked in a vegetative state. We’ll find another way.”

  “Are you sure?”